This Week in Co-Op: Coming Full Circle

3741

For three weeks or more I’ve been working on the first two Gears of War campaigns by myself. It’s not that I haven’t had offers to play them in co-op from the gracious community; my schedule is too crazy to do anything but plow through small segments at a time. So it was to my exclusive benefit when Jason was compelled by the bossman to arrange some game time with yours truly.

Dredging poor JLove out of a flu-powered funk, I obligated us to clear out the digestive tract of a certain gigantic Locust worm in Gears of War 2. We had a few chuckles, killed a lot of Locust, and even broke two Rockworms in half (don’t ask me how...we couldn’t replicate it). After a couple of hours we both had to call it quits, and despite sharing the notion that we would somehow squeeze in more combat time - we never did.

Now I find myself staring a deadline in the face; alas, minus my buddy. I’m not bitter about it. No, sir. (I’ll get my revenge later.) But in the meantime, the I’m back in the enveloping cold of singleness. No wingman to say, “Go ahead, bro: take the grenade launcher,” or “Hunker down and heal - I’ll draw these ugly buggers off”. It’s not enough that I’m back to eradicating the evil invaders alone; I’m also tasked with chronicling the adventures afterward, and without my collaborator I find myself rambling incoherently.

But there are two positive notes that resonate from this horribly tuned chord... The first is that I know Jason will be back. Real life can’t last forever. No...wait. That came out wrong. What I mean to say is that as adult gamers we know all too well that the intermittent break is sure to come along. JLove will come full circle back to a life pause, and we can eventually resume our trudge through densely strewn alien corpses.

The second absolute that comes of Jason’s absence in this post? You and I don’t have to revisit the usual Jim-and-Jason schtick: me dying from consequence of brashness, and my ever-patient partner reviving me again, and again...and again.

Here’s to Jason Love - the best co-op St. Bernard I’ve ever known. Hope you're feeling better, and hope to see you online sometime soon!